Dissected Aorta Repair Through Stent Implantation trial: Canadian results

Objectives

We describe the Canadian results of the Ascyrus Medical Dissection Stent (AMDS), a novel partially uncovered aortic arch hybrid graft implanted antegrade during hypothermic circulatory arrest to promote true lumen expansion and enhance aortic remodeling.

Midterm Outcomes of the Dissected Aorta Repair Through Stent Implantation Trial

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Inconsistencies Between Actual and Estimated Blood Alcohol Concentrations in a Field Study of College Students: Do Students Really Know How Much They Drink?

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use by college students is commonly measured through the use of surveys. The validity of such data hinge on the assumption that students are aware of how much alcohol they actually consume. Recent studies call this assumption into question. Students tend to overestimate the appropriate sizes of standard drinks, suggesting that they might underestimate how much alcohol they consume. If this is true, then students' actual blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) should be higher than BACs estimated based on self-report data. The present study examined this issue METHODS: Breathalyzer readings and self-reported drinking data were collected from 152 college students during the fall of 2004. Estimated BACs were calculated by means of a standard formula, and the relation between actual and estimated BACs was examined. Factors contributing to discrepancies between the two values were identified RESULTS: Estimated BAC levels were significantly higher, not lower, than breath BAC measures. The accuracy of estimated BACs decreased as the number of drinks and amount of time spent drinking increased. Being male and drinking only beer predicted greater accuracy of estimated BACs CONCLUSIONS: Although laboratory data suggest that students underestimate how much they drink, the hypothesis was not supported by data collected in the field. It appears that students might actually overestimate rather than underestimate their levels of consumption when surveyed in the midst of a night of drinking. The findings corroborate observations made by other researchers and suggest that the findings of laboratory studies on college drinking do not necessarily extend to real-world settings.     

Noninvasive assessment of coronary vasodilation using magnetic resonance angiography

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) for assessing human epicardial coronary artery vasodilation. BACKGROUND: Coronary vasodilation plays a vital role in the human coronary circulation. Previous studies of epicardial coronary vasodilation have used invasive coronary angiography. Coronary MRA may provide an alternative noninvasive method to directly assess changes in coronary size. METHODS: Thirty-two subjects were studied: 12 patients (age 55 +/- 18 years) and 20 healthy subjects (age 34 +/- 4 years). High-resolution multi-slice spiral coronary MRA (in-plane resolution of 0.52 to 0.75 mm) was performed before and after sublingual nitroglycerin (NTG). Quantitative analysis of coronary vasodilation was performed on cross-sectional images of the right coronary artery (RCA). A time-course analysis of coronary vasodilation was performed in a subset of eight subjects for 30 min after NTG. Signal-to-noise ratio was also measured on the in-plane RCA images. RESULTS: Coronary MRA demonstrated a 23% increase in cross-sectional area after NTG (16.9 +/- 7.8 mm2 to 20.8 +/- 8.9 mm2, p <0.0001), with significant vasodilation between 3 and 15 min after NTG on time-course analysis. The MRA measurements had low interobserver variability (< or =5%) and good correlation with X-ray angiography (r=0.98). The magnitude of vasodilation correlated with baseline cross-sectional area (r=0.52, p=0.03) and age (r=0.40, p=0.019). Post-NTG images also demonstrated a 31% improvement in coronary signal-to-noise ratio (p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Nitroglycerin-enhanced coronary MRA can noninvasively measure coronary artery vasodilation and is a promising noninvasive technique to study coronary vasomotor function.     

RNAi-Mediated β-Catenin Inhibition Promotes T Cell Infiltration and Antitumor Activity in Combination with Immune Checkpoint Blockade

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Incidence and prognosis of c-KIT and FLT3 mutations in core binding factor (CBF) acute myeloid leukaemias

DNA from 110 adult de novo acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients exhibiting either inv(16) (n = 63) or t(8;21) (n = 47) was screened for mutations in the c-KIT (exon 8 and Asp816) and FLT3 (ITD and Asp835) genes. c-KIT exon 8 mutations were found in 15/63 (23.8%) inv(16) patients and 1/47 (2.1%) t(8;21) patients. c-KIT Asp816 mutations were present in 5/63 (7.9%) inv(16) AML and 5/47 (10.6%) t(8;21) AML. FLT3 mutations were identified in five patients (7.9%) with inv(16) and three patients (5.6%) with t(8;21) AML. All mutations were mutually exclusive; 40% of inv(16) AML patients possessed either a c-KIT or FLT3 mutation. c-KIT exon 8 mutations were shown to be a significant factor adversely affecting relapse rate.     

Ringversuch zum Nachweis genomischer Veränderungen bei Non-Hodgkin-Lymphomen mittels In-situ-Hybridisierung

Background

The detection of characteristic genomic aberrations by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) has a high diagnostic impact on lymphomas according to the World Health Organization (WHO). To investigate the reproducibility of non-isotopic ISH results a multicenter trial was carried out involving eight institutes for hematopathology.

Material and methods

Analyses were performed on two diffuse large B-cell lymphomas (DLBCL) without known aberrations, on one follicular lymphoma with a IGH/BCL2 translocation and BCL6 split and on two B-cell lymphomas intermediate between DLBCL and Burkitt’s lymphoma with c-MYC and BCL2 rearrangements, one with an additional BCL6 split. Break-apart probes for BCL6 and c-MYC, as well as fusion probes for the c-MYC/IGH and the IGH/BCL2 translocations were used.

Results

All aberrations were correctly detected by all centres and no false positive or false negative results were obtained. The numbers of positive cells varied from 25% to 94%. Pearson’s correlation coefficient between the centres was always >?0.8.

Conclusions

The ISH analysis of recurrent genomic aberrations in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue is a highly reproducible technique which yields substantial additive help for lymphoma diagnostics.